Laura's screening with Laura Weaser

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Directed: Brad Bird.

Bombs, babes and Tom Cruise looking a little worse for wear – Mission Impossible has dropped the number, added a secondary title and spruced itself up in an attempt to reinvent itself as a serious action film. I'll tell you now, not much has changed, but hey, that's the way I like it.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team have been disavowed, after an explosion in Russia is incorrectly pinned on the IMF.

Searching for the bad guy at the root of this, Ethan discovers the fate of the world is in jeopardy as nuclear launch codes have fallen into the wrong hands and the team has to take on a dangerous mission without any support. Can they do it? (...cue dramatic music…)

Mission Impossible is a franchise that has been passed from hand to hand of many different directors.

First, it was crime expert Brian De Palma with deceptions at every turn.

Then, it was John Woo – Chinese action extraordinaire, famous for extreme, slow-mo action sequences.

Star Trek's J.J Abram's had a go, bringing Mission Impossible out of the 1990s with big blockbuster plots and complex narrative sequences.

And now we have….a children's film director?

Brad Bird, famous for working with Pixar, is perhaps the most surprising choice and ironically the most successful choice – blending humour, ridiculous situations, seduction and even a hint of sadness to the latest instalment of MI.

The plot is nothing new. American's versus Russia with a pinch of nuclear terrorism is a story as old as the Cold War, and Russian's have been used as bad guys ever since. However, the execution of the simple story was incredible (an example of a simply story used correctly, unlike my thoughts on Tintin).

There was so much intensity in every encounter of good and evil, particularly heightened by the idea of the agents ricking it all without the back-up of the United States government. Luring the bad guys into a risky trap of double identity was shot in a way that I was literally biting my nails – would our good guys get caught out?

By the end of the two hour film, I felt like I had been for a cross country run.

Scientology-couch jumping-craziness aside, I am still a Tom Cruise fan.

In the rare shirtless moments, he has noticeably aged and lost the toning, but there is something so suave and still sexy about him. Viva la Top Gun.

Cruise shoe-in Jeremy Renner (from The Hurt Locker and upcoming blockbuster The Avengers) packs the good-looks in.

Picking up where Cruise's abs left off, he is not only the eye-candy of the film, but gets his screen time with some death-defying stunts and hand-to-hand combat.

Paula Patton is thrown in for a good measure of perky boobs and bitch-fights, and Simon Pegg reprises his role from MI:3 as the comic side kick/computer wizz.

Hard-core MI fans look out for the star cameos at the end for fan-boy/girl moments.

Reel Moments

The crowd pleaser – lots of action that all defies logic and credibility. Fist fights, explosions, cuts, bruises and plunging BMW straight into a concrete floor for 10 storeys up; and managing to survive! Brilliant.

The stage dive – Tom Cruise's abs. Hmmm not looking as sharp as his Top Gun days.

Final curtain call? – Shameless entertainment that I was surprisingly impressed with. A lot of fun, and also a dammed intense ride. Better than MI2, not as clever as MI1 and I can't even remember MI3.

Agree or disagree? Over the MI franchise or which one is your favourite? Feel free to comment!